


Strange & Beautiful

by thescarletphoenixx



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Animal Death, Blood and Gore, Gen, Mild Language, Wilderness Living, lycanthropy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-11 16:36:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19931158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thescarletphoenixx/pseuds/thescarletphoenixx
Summary: Bucky is sent to Alaska on a solo mission to look into a series of strange animal killings. What he finds is definitely not what he was expecting.





	Strange & Beautiful

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Melting Pot’s Christmas in July 2019 & MMF’s Bingo 2019.
> 
> Pairing: Lavender Brown & Bucky Barnes  
> Location: Juneau, Alaska  
> Prompt: Seashells
> 
> Huge thank you to my fandom bestie and alpha, JenniseiBlack, for always reading my stuff and reminding me that it is, in fact, not garbage. :P  
> I did not have time to get this beta-read so any mistakes you find are my own!
> 
> All non-original characters, plot points, and information belongs to Warner Brothers, J.K. Rowling, and/or Marvel Studios. The story plot and dialogue belongs to me. I do not write for profit.

Lavender broke the surface of the cold water in the Gastineau Channel, her Bubblehead charm wearing off as the water rolled off her skin. She treaded water for a minute before swimming for the shore with her prize—a mesh bag full of an assortment of shells gathered from the depths. These shells she would use to create more of the jewelry she sold to the tourist shops; it was how she made a living in Juneau. Her pieces were always sought-after, because using her magic, she could dive deep to find the best shells, and her other… condition… kept away the predatory creatures lurking in the cold depths. She didn’t have to be in her other form for them to know, they could sense it. 

Lavender was a werewolf, or to put it more delicately, a lycan. She’d been bitten by Fenrir Greyback when she was younger. She’d sustained a particularly nasty bite, and very nearly died. Her accelerated healing had long since faded the vicious marks from her neck and shoulder, until they were little more than subtle silvery lines. They ran deep, and were more visible up close, but they were not so difficult to conceal. She was grateful for that at least, because people loved to stare and she did not feel inclined to share the origins of her disfigurement. 

Fenrir… one of the nastiest of her kind, she thought to herself. He had already been vicious and apathetic before he had aligned himself with Dark wizards, and that alliance made him all the more formidable. Luckily, he had been apprehended soon after the Battle of Hogwarts, and he was currently rotting in Azkaban. Good riddance, Lavender thought. He deserved what he got and more. 

As she was sorting the shells she’d collected, her thoughts were interrupted by the hairs on the back of her neck standing up. Someone was watching her, she could feel their eyes on her. She whipped around and scanned the treeline behind her. No one was on the beach and she could see no one amongst the trees, but she could still feel the presence. She _knew_ someone was there. She gathered up her shells, they could be sorted at home. She wanted badly to Apparate, but knowing she was being watched, she would have to walk instead. She collected the rest of her things and started on the well-worn path leading back towards town. She wouldn’t go home just yet, not until she could be sure she wasn’t followed there.

As she walked, she hooked her bag in the crook of her arm to have both hands free, and pulled her long blonde hair over one shoulder, wringing it out. With her wand up her sleeve, she muttered a quick spell to dry her wet clothes, walking briskly so hopefully it would not be so obvious. Although she heard nothing and saw nothing, Lavender still felt the sensation of being watched, until she was walking into the outskirts of town. She reached the small general store she frequented, and stepped inside, saying hello to Tom, the owner. She figured as long as she was here, she’d pick up a few things that she could carry, killing time and hoping she would not feel eyes upon her again when she left.

~~~~~

From his spot amongst the trees, Bucky watched the woman hurry into the small store. He knew he’d spooked her down by the water. She couldn’t see him, that he was sure of, but she knew he was there all the same, and had not stuck around once she realized it. He had followed her at a reasonable distance, until she had practically run into the little store just on the outskirts of Juneau. Despite it being summer, there was a definite chill in the air. He would not like it here in the colder months, he thought to himself. He hated the cold; he had had more than enough of the cold to last the rest of his life.

Sam had sent him out here, since Sam was now in charge of the Avengers, or at least, what was left of them. A “concerned citizen” had requested assistance to look into the mysterious circumstances surrounding the deaths of local wildlife and some livestock. The reports were not unusual at first glance, but a second look yielded something more interesting. Large animals, found bled near completely dry, large chunks of flesh and muscle missing from the carcasses. Now, at first glance one might assume this was nothing out of the natural order of things, but each animal had been found with a single major artery sliced open, far too clean and perfect for a predator in the wild. These large animals would have bled to death in minutes, and again it was unusual because some of these animals were predators themselves. Among the dead was a thousand pound adult brown bear. Not an easy kill, even for an experienced sportsman. 

Evidently, the local authorities were not much help, and so this anonymous person had kept trying until they found someone who would listen. Some military friend of Sam’s had caught wind of it, and had brought it to his attention. Somehow, Sam thought this was the perfect assignment for Bucky. In some ways, it was, since he was out here by himself and he worked better on his own. Working alone for seventy years, it’s awfully hard to get used to a sudden shift to a team dynamic, particularly when you have trust issues of your own and then the only person in the world who trusts you even halfway is Sam fucking Wilson. 

Steve had trusted him, probably a bit too much, the soft-hearted, sentimental punk. But Steve was gone now, and had entrusted Sam to carry on in his place. Steve had worried over him as much as a mother hen. Thankfully, that was not Sam’s personality type in the slightest. They clashed over quite a few things, but their differences were what made their friendship work, without Steve. So that was how he ended up here, tailing this woman, who had been mentioned in the tip as a person of interest, someone who might know more than they were letting on. Her reflexes were impressive. This was the third time this week that she’d managed to sense that he was there, when a normal person could not have. His level of stealth was far beyond the norm. He was the world’s foremost assassin for half a century, after all. 

Hidden in the treeline a safe distance from the small store, Bucky wondered if this woman was enhanced, like Wanda. She had to be enhanced, there was no other explanation for her picking up on his presence, not once, but three times. But there were no enhanced individuals unaccounted for in this area… unless she was flying under the radar for a reason. Everyone had secrets, it was just a matter of finding out how dark they were. One way or another, he would find out what hers was.

~~~~~

Having made it home without any more excitement, Lavender breathed a sigh of relief. She placed her brown grocery bag on the counter and her mesh bag of shells on the table. She put away the few things she’d bought from Tom’s store, and then filled a bowl with water and brought that and a dishtowel to the table with her. She fished all of the shells out of the bag and spread them out, cleaning and polishing each of them in turn, whilst she sorted them. 

She was pleased with her finds, they would make for some striking new pieces. Her shell jewelry was very sought after, beloved by locals and tourists alike. It gave her something to do to occupy her free time, and brought in enough income for her to maintain her modest lifestyle. She preferred to live in solitude, away from the general population. It was really best for everyone, particularly when the moon was full. 

Thinking about the full moon reminded her to check her moon calendar, and her potion supply. Lavender did her best to keep her potion supplies well stocked, and her potion brewed and ready for use. Unfortunately, the potion didn’t work as well for her, as it typically did for men. It was very rare for a woman to survive a werewolf bite. So rare that she was only the second ever recorded, and those records told her that the first woman went completely mad and had died not long after. The Healers had been shocked when Lavender had lived, and even more shocked when she maintained her sanity while under observation. 

Despite many attempts to tweak the standard potion recipe, she’d found nothing so far that would completely halt her transformation or hinder her cravings for fresh, raw meat. Freshly killed. It had to be freshly killed. Her cravings became nearly insatiable around the time of the full moon, and that time was fast approaching. She tried her best to plan ahead and stock her fridge, but there was such a limited window within which meat would stay fresh, and freezing it altered the taste. Some meats she could freeze and they were not so bad, but others just had to be fresh to satisfy her. She sighed when she opened her fridge, as there was only a small amount of fresh meat left. It was enough for the next two nights, but it meant she would have to go hunting, and nearer to the full moon at that. Lavender didn’t like it, but she didn’t have much choice.

~~~~~

As darkness had fallen and the moon had risen high in the sky, Bucky had gone into the woods. Not without at least 6 knives and 4 guns hidden carefully on his person... he never went anywhere unarmed, particularly into a potentially dangerous situation. He’d spoken to a handful of locals to find out more about the mysterious killings, and the last one, likely the anonymous tipster, had more than enough information to give him. It appeared that several men had tried to catch the creature in the act and had just barely failed, each time. 

The reports consistently noted a cloaked individual with white hands and gleaming, almost claw-like nails, but people talked and could easily influence each other to see things that were just not there. The older, more superstitious ones believed it to be an “Adlet;” the stuff of old Inuit legends, a bloodthirsty half-person, half-dog. Bucky hardly believed such things. He’d seen quite a lot in his life, but that was just too far fetched in his mind. While he did have to admit that the circumstances were suspicious, it was more likely to be something entirely mundane and predictable. 

He hadn’t been able to talk to the enhanced woman before night had fallen, he supposed he could try again tomorrow, as the initial plea for help had been adamant that she had critical knowledge in this. He’d watched her for several days now, so he knew her routine. He’d plan to bump into her somewhere where she might feel more safe, and might be more willing to talk to him. 

Just as Bucky was sorting through his thoughts and laying out his plans for the next few days, his enhanced hearing picked up some strange sounds. He frowned and looked up. He was deep into the woods now. He followed the sounds further north and drew a knife from a side pocket. But he was not prepared for what he discovered when he reached the source of the hacking and squelching sounds. It took quite a lot to shock Bucky, and he was shocked by what he found. 

The reports, for all their assumed uselessness, had been right. For he came upon a cloaked figure, hunched over a fully grown moose, that was just barely dead. In fact, Bucky had heard its heart stop. Dainty pale hands with long dark nails, stained and dripping with blood, were tearing methodically at the flesh, cleaving muscle from bone. 

“Holy shit.”

The figure stopped its work and stiffened. Bucky gripped his knife in one hand and had another on one of his handguns, as the figure turned to face him. He was in for another shock, for the eyes that met his belonged to her; the elusive enhanced woman. 

She was trembling as she started to stand, hands held out in front of her in a sign of surrender. 

“It’s not what it looks like…” she started to say.

“Don’t move unless you want this blade embedded in your jugular,” he warned her. 

She fell silent and continued to hold her hands up, keeping her eyes on him.

“Ok, this is what it looks like, but I can explain, if you’ll let me.”

She tilted her head and her ice blue eyes seemed to look right through him. She was a haunting vision, with her pale skin and bloody hands, but she spoke softly, and the way her hands trembled, she appeared to be more afraid than anything else. A bright white shell on a long chain hung from her neck. It was splattered with the animal’s blood, but still gleaming in the moonlight.

“I know who you are,” she said.

“Then you know I won’t do you any favors.”

She shook her head.

“I am not looking for any. You’ve seen more than most, you can probably handle what I’m about to tell you, and you don’t seem like the chatty type.”

Bucky studied her a moment before nodding, curious to hear what she had to say.

She took a deep breath and let a moment pass before she spoke.

“I’m Lavender, and I’m a lycan.”

“Huh? A what?”

Lavender sighed. She was going to have to spell it out. 

“A lycan. It’s a more delicate term for werewolf; the preferred term, actually. I was bitten when I was younger. And this,” she gestured to the moose behind her, “is how I maintain my diet without hurting anyone. I suppose if you’re here, it means someone must have spotted the pattern in my kills… I try to spare them as much suffering as possible, I’m not inhumane. Cutting a major artery grants them a quicker, less painful death. Then I take what I need and leave the rest for other predators or scavengers. I guess I was too neat and precise, I should have mucked it up a bit.”

Bewildered, Bucky just blinked at her while he let her words sink in. Curiosity got the better of him.

“So… why can’t you just get raw meat from the supermarket?”

Lavender wrinkled her nose.

“Believe me, I tried that. I wanted it to work, but that kind of meat is never as good as this. Much of it comes from factories, not from real farms. Animals in the wild, particularly here, are not only healthier, they’re happier. The higher quality of that meat, combined with a fresh kill, makes it so much more appealing. If I have to eat raw, I’m certainly going to do it right, so that is why I am out here in the wilderness.”

He simply stood there. He was fascinated. Wary, but fascinated. He had seen quite a lot in his unusually long life, but he couldn’t say that he’d ever met a werewolf, much less a female one. Werewolves were supposed to exist only in scary stories, and yet here was one standing right in front of him, looking rather un-wolflike. He frowned at her.

“Why don’t you look more, uh…”

“Like a wolf?” She offered. “I, and others like me, drink a daily potion to counteract most of the effects of lycanthropy. Many others live normal lives so long as they stay consistent with the treatment, but me, well, I am the only surviving female lycan, and the potion doesn’t work as well for me. Hence, the raw diet.”

Bucky was just amazed. She was calm and collected, and very matter-of-fact. He didn’t see her as a threat, and he didn’t think she deserved to be treated as such.

“Well, what are you going to do?” She was looking at him expectantly.

The way he saw it, she wasn’t hurting anyone, just like she said. He had to commend her for living the way she did, off the grid and in solitude, and doing her best not to attract attention. He could sympathize with that. So when he called Sam the next day to report his findings, he made no mention of Lavender at all. He managed to convince the local authorities that the killings were nothing to be concerned about. Some people were so easy to convince when the words came from an Avenger.. He kept her secret so she could continue to live in peace, hidden away from the rest of the world.


End file.
